JIB intestinal bypass description

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This surgery bypassed all but 12-18 inches of the small bowel.  It was developed for quick weight loss and was designed to be reversible when the patient had lost all their weight.  But many patients were intrigued by being able to eat a lot and not gaining as fast as they would have without the bypass so they did not have it reversed.  Although many patients gained back a considerable amount of weight, most hesitated to have them reversed until the years of malabsorption began to cause damage to organs like the kidneys. For those who left the JIB intact, liver failure often resulting in death, was a common long term side effect. An example of an individual with an intact JIB who died from liver failure was Al Hirt, the famous trumpet player.  He had gained a lot of weight back and was over 300 lbs at the time of his death.

In the JIB the stomach was not stapled at all.  There are many patients 30 years post op who are still around.  Generally after several years, the small bowel enlarges to create more absorption albeit patients still suffer from some vitamin deficiencies due to the rapid passage of food through the digestive tract.

This procedure is MOSTLY not done any more although there are a few surgeons still performing it.  But since patients with more modern surgeries with long limb intestinal bypasses (like the distal gastric bypass and the DS/BPD or BPD) might  face some of the same long term side effects (according to the asbs.org), and for historical reasons, a few accounts are given here.  The JIB was the "gold standard" of Weight Loss Surgery until 1990 when it was replaced by the gastric bypass (invented in 1965) as the "Gold Standard".